Letters: Creative budgeting

From
JOHN MULVEY

In ‘A Major commitment to science?’ (This Week, 12 February) Jeremy
Webb reported there would be ‘new money’ of about £7.5 million for
the research councils next year.

Good news? Well, yes, but we should be careful to distinguish ‘spin’
from fact in government presentations. The spending plans announced in November
1992 foresaw a budget for science staying roughly constant in real terms
through 1994-95 and then falling the following year. In November 1993, Save
British Science welcomed the budget statement demonstrating that William
Waldegrave’s promise to maintain the value of the science budget had been
kept and extended to …